Quarterly rental rates

Apartment rents
Average rental rates for apartments in San Diego County in the second quarter, ranked by top cities.

City

Monthly average

% change from last year

San Diego

$1,510

Unchanged

Chula Vista

$1,247

+0.6%

Oceanside

$1,279

-2.7%

Escondido

$1,048

-2.1%

Vista

$1,191

+1.0%

El Cajon

$1,088

+3.1%

OVERALL

$1,376

-0.2%

Source: RealFacts

Apartment rents in San Diego County dipped a bit in the second quarter compared with a year ago, as the economic recovery has yet to create many new local jobs that would fuel demand for rental housing.

A study of rental rates and vacancies in the county’s largest apartment complexes found that average rents fell from $1,378 a month in the second quarter of 2009 to $1,376 this year, according to Novato-based apartment research firm RealFacts.

Vacancy rates improved to 5.9 percent, compared with 6.5 percent in the county for the same quarter last year.

But slightly tighter vacancy was not enough to influence rental pricing, as a 5 percent vacancy rate is essentially considered equilibrium in the apartment market, said Alan Pentico, a spokesman for the San Diego County Apartment Association.

Last month, the Apartment Association came out with its own report on rental rates and vacancies that mirrors the finding in the RealFacts data.

“Now the rental market, like the economy, seems to have bottomed out and we are waiting for the recovery to start,” said Robert Pinnegar, executive director of the apartment association.

For landlords, their inability to raise rates is not good news. “It’s flat, and that’s what the members are griping about,” said Pentico. “Water rates and things like that have gone up” while rental rates haven’t.

While RealFacts surveys all types of units from studios to four bedrooms, the majority are either one bedroom, one bath units or two bedroom, two bath units. In San Diego County, the average rent for one bedroom was $1,196, while the average for two bedrooms was $1,559.

San Diego County ranked sixth among California’s 26 metropolitan areas in terms of highest rental rates. The leader was San Jose/Silicon Valley, where average rents were $1,556 a month. The lowest rents in the state were in the Hanford/Corcoran area of the Central Valley at $710 per month.

Nationally, RealFacts reported that rents rose and vacancy declined, although the changes were minimal. The national average rent was $950 a month in the second quarter. The leading regions for rental rate growth were San Jose and Seattle. Cities with the biggest declines in rental rates were Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla.